Material Culture

Inventing Japanese Braille

Wei Yu Wayne Tan 1 May 202530 April 2025

Our understanding of Braille is often shaped by narratives from Western Europe and the United States. Wei Yu Wayne Tan explores the significance of inventing Japanese Braille.

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The Flower Girls of London

Felicity Hall 3 April 20253 April 2025

Felicity Hall explores the mythologised lives and lived experiences of Victorian London flower sellers.

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Radical Object: Printer’s Type from the Thames Foreshore

Peter Wollweber 4 February 20255 February 2025

If you go down to the Thames today, you're sure of a big surprise - printer's type. Peter Wollweber unpacks its radical history.

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From Place to Place

Vivien Chan 30 January 202527 January 2025

What radical histories can be found in 'working and wandering'? Vivien Chan introduces a new History Workshop series on itinerant histories.

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Our Heritage, Our Stories: Valuing and Accessing UK Digital Citizen History

Hannah Barker & Stefan Ramsden 17 September 202425 September 2024

What is digital citizen history and how can we engage with it? Hannah Barker and Stefan Ramsden discuss their ongoing project, 'Our Histories, Our Stories'.

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The Telegraph From Below

Sebastian James Rose 28 June 202428 June 2024

What can subaltern telegraph workers tell us about empire and its technologies? Sebastian Rose on the agency of labour

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Tomorrow is Yesterday: Disability in Ancient Egypt

Alexandra F. Morris 16 May 202416 May 2024

Alexandra F. Morris reflects on the presence of disability within ancient Egypt and how much can be identified by the lived expertise of disabled researchers.

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Agreeing to Disagree in Feminist Newsletters

Bec Wonders 26 March 20248 August 2024

Bec Wonders reframes feminist discourses, from unified agreement to collaborative debate, through the newsletters of the Women in Print Movement.

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Radical Objects: The Pot and Pan

Matthew Kerry 12 March 202411 March 2024

Matthew Kerry explores how the humble pot and pan have become powerful tools for protestors.

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Tin Trunks and Other Archives of Trauma

Rose Miyonga 1 February 20241 February 2024

How do people make sense of a traumatic past when evidence for it has been destroyed?

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Punk in the 1970s

Matthew Worley 19 December 202319 December 2023

Was the emergence of punk simply a cultural response to the economic uncertainties of 1970s Britain? Matthew Worley suggests a more complex origin story.

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The Ancient History of the WAG

Grace Whorrall-Campbell 20 September 202320 September 2023

Footballers' Wives and Girlfriends exploded into British pop culture at the turn of the millennium, but what does the WAG tell us about feminism, football and pre-credit crunch Britain? Grace Whorrall-Campbell explores.

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The History of Radical Mas Bands at Notting Hill Carnival

Ife Thompson 1 March 20233 March 2023

What can the radical tradition of costume & performance at Notting Hill Carnival tell us about a decolonised approach to the teaching of history? Ife Thompson on the People's War Carnival Band

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Sharpening Skills

Paul Warde 14 November 202220 December 2022

What can tools - for cutting, sharpening or carrying - tell us about the nature of work in the past? Paul Warde on how the skills that tools embodied can nuance narratives of modernity and productivity.

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Radical Object: An Early Medieval Prosthetic Hand

Charles West 26 September 202219 January 2023

A simple prosthetic hand demonstrates care for the physically impaired in early medieval Europe, but does it also say something about the political nature of that care?

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Women and the Mau Mau Memorial

Evalyne Wanjiru 31 August 20224 January 2023

How does the Mau Mau Memorial Monument depict women's involvement in the anti-colonial Mau Mau uprising? How can women's own words and memories add to this important history? Evalyne Wanjiru explores in this piece.

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When Colonial Loot is Hidden in Plain Sight

Tim Livsey 20 July 202212 January 2023

For many decades, archival documents taken from the Global South by British colonial officers have been quietly available to researchers at the National Archives. Tim Livsey explores the history and questionable ethics of this "open…

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Radical Objects: Josiah Wedgwood’s anti-slavery medallion

Georgia Haseldine 20 April 202229 October 2022

In the late eighteenth century Wedgwood’s medallion rallied people to the radical cause of abolition. Can it still inspire radical change today? Georgia Haseldine discusses the medallion’s historic radical power and re-making the…

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A Very British Scrapbooking Scandal

Cherish Watton 18 March 202229 October 2022

Cherish Watton considers what a scrapbooking scene in a recent BBC drama can tell us about the value of scrapbooks as radical sources for uncovering women’s lives.

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Radical Object: UK AIDS Memorial Quilt

Clifford McManus 30 November 202120 January 2023

This World AIDS Day, Clifford McManus discusses the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt as a radical object of protest and activism, and a symbol of love and remembrance.

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Radical Object: Richard Carlile’s Little Hammer

Robert Forder 14 June 202120 January 2023

How does a small gavel on display in the offices of Britain's National Secular Society commemorate past struggles for free thought and free speech? Robert Forder explores.

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Rebel Flags, Fast Cars and the Capitol: The Confederate Flag in Popular Culture

Isabel Gilbert 6 April 202129 October 2022

What meanings can be attached to divisive symbols, and with what consequences? Isabel Gilbert explores the history of the Confederate flag and its reception, from the Civil War to the Dukes of Hazzard and, eventually, the Capitol Riots.

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Radical Object: A Colonial Schoolboy’s Report Card

Sneha Krishnan 7 October 202020 January 2023

VRG Menon spent a lifetime haunted by the power of this report card and attempting to use other forms of capital he had to compensate for it. But Venu – Moo – also dwelled in a world where the report card’s errors became a running…

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Friendship and Fieldwork

Hélène Maloigne 16 July 202012 January 2023

Hélène Maloigne shows how archaeology, and especially fieldwork, depends on communication, collaboration and, importantly, friendship.

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Shackles and Handcuffs: The ‘Special Relationship’ of Racist Policing

Joseph Yannielli and Christine Whyte 9 July 202013 January 2023

A culture of hyper-vigilantism and the conflation of skin colour with criminality did not begin with the abolition of slavery or with the current age of mass incarceration. Joseph Yannielli and Christine Whyte explore its 18th-century…

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Banner Tales: material culture and the making of solidarity

Diarmaid Kelliher & David Featherstone 1 July 201921 January 2023

Banner Tales is a collaboration between geographers and Glasgow Museums staff. The project has encouraged reflection on the relationship between material cultures and the makings of solidarity.

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Radical Object: A Nice Cup of Tea? Everyday Ceramics as Sites of Empire

Elisabeth Grass 23 April 201921 January 2023

What can eighteenth-century ceramics tell us about empire? Elisabeth Grass examines how fine china tea cups and saucers became fashionable commodities that represent some of the many ways in which empire appeared, and was normalised, in…

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Counter-Narratives of Empire and the ‘Oceania’ Exhibition

Meg Foster 25 February 201912 January 2023

'Stolen', 'plundered' and 'more than art'. Meg Foster looks at the living spiritual and cultural meanings of 'objects' featured in the Oceania exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts.

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Radical Object: Military Sweetheart Brooches of the First World War

Penny Streeter 21 November 20181 October 2022

Penny Streeter examines the emotional history of sweetheart brooches; tokens of love and loss kept by the families of soldiers in the First World War.

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Remembering 1968 – The Poster Workshop, 1968-71

Sam Lord 9 July 20184 January 2023

The Poster Workshop was the first of the radical screen-printing workshops in London, and its posters offer a mirror to the political preoccupations of the times.

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Material Culture

What

Where

When

Series

Inventing Japanese Braille

The Flower Girls of London

Radical Object: Printer’s Type from the Thames Foreshore

From Place to Place

Our Heritage, Our Stories: Valuing and Accessing UK Digital Citizen History

The Telegraph From Below

Tomorrow is Yesterday: Disability in Ancient Egypt

Agreeing to Disagree in Feminist Newsletters

Radical Objects: The Pot and Pan

Tin Trunks and Other Archives of Trauma

Punk in the 1970s

The Ancient History of the WAG

The History of Radical Mas Bands at Notting Hill Carnival

Sharpening Skills

Radical Object: An Early Medieval Prosthetic Hand

Women and the Mau Mau Memorial

When Colonial Loot is Hidden in Plain Sight

Radical Objects: Josiah Wedgwood’s anti-slavery medallion

A Very British Scrapbooking Scandal

Radical Object: UK AIDS Memorial Quilt

Radical Object: Richard Carlile’s Little Hammer

Rebel Flags, Fast Cars and the Capitol: The Confederate Flag in Popular Culture

Radical Object: A Colonial Schoolboy’s Report Card

Friendship and Fieldwork

Shackles and Handcuffs: The ‘Special Relationship’ of Racist Policing

Banner Tales: material culture and the making of solidarity

Radical Object: A Nice Cup of Tea? Everyday Ceramics as Sites of Empire

Counter-Narratives of Empire and the ‘Oceania’ Exhibition

Radical Object: Military Sweetheart Brooches of the First World War

Remembering 1968 – The Poster Workshop, 1968-71